debray (03/05/83)
This refers back to something I saw in an article a few days ago in this
newsgroup, which claimed that the original meaning of "prove" was *NOT*
"to test".
Here's the Oxford English Dictionary (1971 edition) on the subject :
"prove" derives from the Latin "probare" - to test (a thing) as to its
goodness, to try a thing out. Meanings :
I. To make trial of, try, test ; to subject to a testing process ...
example : "[The engraver] proved a plate in different states, that he might
ascertain how far his labours had been successful." (Encyclopaedia Brittanica,
3rd. ed., 1797, vol XV, p 590 ).
Sorry to be pedantic, but I HAD to be vindicated!
Saumya Debray
SUNY at Stony Brook
{peri!, allegra!} sbcs!debray